Make drugs a health issue, not a criminal one, for the user. Decriminalise drugs and treat all those who want help including those with alcohol problems, this could be funded from the savings made through the police, courts and prisons. We are told 40% of 'criminals' are in prison for drug issues, if we say 10% of those were not just 'users' that still leaves 30% of the 85,000 prisoners each costing us £38,000 per year we are told. Do the math, it's a lot of money that could be better spent.
There is very sound evidence that decriminalisation of drugs results in a lessening of drug taking and its associated problems in the countries brave enough to go this route with their 'drug problem'.
Countries like America literally have a 'War on drugs' with their own citizens that I personally think is downright undemocratic. We are British/European not American!
By making drugs a health issue rather than a criminal one for the user, many people could live without fear of persecution and prosecution just because they have chosen to partake in a drug other than alcohol. Even using in the privacy of their own homes people can be taken into custody just because they partake in a drug other than alcohol or dare to grow an illegal herb! Whoever said an Englishman's home was his castle was not talking about the second half of the 20th century and certainly not the 21st century!
The artificial separation of drugs and alcohol as if alcohol is something other than a drug is confusing our young, 'It's legal therefore it must be safe' headset stems from this very type of misinformation. "In 2005 statistics show that 'More than a quarter of all deaths in men aged between 16 and 24 were attributed to alcohol along with 15% of deaths of women of the same age. More than 8 million hospital admissions in 2005 were thought to be due to drinking alcohol". (Telegraph newspaper Oct 2008 by Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor)
